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Lot Essay
'For Heron the subject matter of the material world around him was inexhaustibly interesting and rewarding. In his paintings of the 1940s and 1950s he explored the relations between the human brain and what it perceived and constructed. He believed Italianate perspective was limiting and instead found inspiration in the multi-perspectival
schemes of Modern Art' (M. Gooding, Patrick Heron, London, 2008, pp. 66-75).
In 1949, Heron painted the critic Herbert Read (National Portrait Gallery, London), at the suggestion of T.S. Eliot, an earlier sitter. The portrait was a great success and particularly commented upon by David Sylvester in his review of Heron's Redfern show in the spring of 1950, in which he noted that 'Heronwas becoming less dependent upon the Master. If [certain of the paintings] are still dominated by Braque's idiom, they have a peculiarly astringent intensity that is quite foreign to Braque ... Now it seems that we may know him in the future as an artist with a personality of his own' (see M. Gooding, loc. cit.).
Playing Card Girl: 1952 is a confident and elegant work of a painter simultaneously exploring the world of light and object, and the workings of his own eye and brain. The early 1950s are dominated by a number of portraits, mostly depicting his wife and daughters, as well as Self-Portrait painted in 1951 (National Portrait Gallery, London). These works were undertaken at a time when the artist was concentrating on painting familiar objects - tables, coffee pots, bottles and plants, with a new curiosity of vision. At this time, Heron pointed out his deep admiration and inspiration that he found in the French masters in a letter written to Tate about his seminal work Harbour Window with Two Figures, St.Ives: July 1950 (private collection): 'It was largely based on the French masters I so admired, and which I was alone (with William Scott) in England, let alone Cornwall, in being influenced by at that time ... From Braque came the idea of the 'transparency' of the objects: for instance the line of the carpet flows right through both the armchair, the legs of the nude figure, the table ... On the other hand, the nature of my charcoal drawing is far removed from Braque; for instance, there is not a single rigidly straight line, nor a pure arc or circle; in their loose and speedy linearity these charcoal grids are, therefore, if anything, nearer Matisse - though I would have thought they are perhaps personal and rather English' (see M. Gooding, op. cit., pp. 74-5).
schemes of Modern Art' (M. Gooding, Patrick Heron, London, 2008, pp. 66-75).
In 1949, Heron painted the critic Herbert Read (National Portrait Gallery, London), at the suggestion of T.S. Eliot, an earlier sitter. The portrait was a great success and particularly commented upon by David Sylvester in his review of Heron's Redfern show in the spring of 1950, in which he noted that 'Heronwas becoming less dependent upon the Master. If [certain of the paintings] are still dominated by Braque's idiom, they have a peculiarly astringent intensity that is quite foreign to Braque ... Now it seems that we may know him in the future as an artist with a personality of his own' (see M. Gooding, loc. cit.).
Playing Card Girl: 1952 is a confident and elegant work of a painter simultaneously exploring the world of light and object, and the workings of his own eye and brain. The early 1950s are dominated by a number of portraits, mostly depicting his wife and daughters, as well as Self-Portrait painted in 1951 (National Portrait Gallery, London). These works were undertaken at a time when the artist was concentrating on painting familiar objects - tables, coffee pots, bottles and plants, with a new curiosity of vision. At this time, Heron pointed out his deep admiration and inspiration that he found in the French masters in a letter written to Tate about his seminal work Harbour Window with Two Figures, St.Ives: July 1950 (private collection): 'It was largely based on the French masters I so admired, and which I was alone (with William Scott) in England, let alone Cornwall, in being influenced by at that time ... From Braque came the idea of the 'transparency' of the objects: for instance the line of the carpet flows right through both the armchair, the legs of the nude figure, the table ... On the other hand, the nature of my charcoal drawing is far removed from Braque; for instance, there is not a single rigidly straight line, nor a pure arc or circle; in their loose and speedy linearity these charcoal grids are, therefore, if anything, nearer Matisse - though I would have thought they are perhaps personal and rather English' (see M. Gooding, op. cit., pp. 74-5).